Wednesday, 26 December 2012

That's the time of the year when people get closer, when there are good vibrations everywhere; when we get to spend more time with our relatives, wives and husbands; when we get to see old-time friends who dont't live nearby anymore; it is a time to forgive, a time to accept, a time to ponder and a TIME TO LOVE! I wish everyone a happy-very-jolly-merry-berry-Christmas! And here's a Christmas poem for you:

Our ChristmasChristmas came early for you and for meChristmas with no gifts to openChristmas without any yuletide treeChristmas with words of love spokenChristmas was walking to York hand in handChristmas in awe at the MinsterChristmas togetherness was just what we plannedChristmas was chaffed legs and blistersChristmas was cups of tea served early mornChristmas was being togetherChristmas was loving from dusk until dawnChristmas remembered foreverChristmas was driving through floods for the viewChristmas ‘our planning’ was starting Christmas our Christmas meant so much to meChristmas our bitter sweet parting Stephen Holland

Friday, 9 November 2012

Yesterday was an amazing evening: One of the best concerts I've ever been to. Here, at Sala São Paulo, we had a beautiful concert with the soprano Renée Fleming and THE PIANIST GERALD MARTIN MOORE. The reason why I'm capitalising the pianist here is because, well, I didn't get to see much advertising about the concert (which is already bad by itself) and, basically, wherever there was any , the information given was only that we'd have a concert with the soprano Renée Fleming - as if she were singing a cappella, right? The wonderful PIANIST GERALD M. MOORE wasn't mentioned at all - in almost none of the flyers. I find it sad, for such a fact reminds me of a great 20th century pianist whose name is Gerald Moore - do pardon the punwise naming here -who once said he couldn't understand why pianists were overshadowed by the very singers they were playing with. And that nonsense behavior unfortunately lingers in the 21st century. While that is something I can only hope will change in time (and hopefully this text will make some people conscious of this scenery...), what's left to me now is congratulating the wonderful duo for their wunderschönesKonzert. Bravi!

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

When I'm using social networks I get to see many grammar/vocabulary/spelling mistakes. Sure enough, we do have a laugh at those mistakes sometimes, we talk to friends about them, but in fact, I do not enjoy putting people down for that - we all make mistakes (in fact, I might be making mistakes right now, as I write this post), be them small mistakes or big ones. But then, it does bother me when somebody does ALL of the following things:

- They write fround upon instead of frowned upon;

- They translate a text with the aid of Google translator and the result is awful (which is often resulting of the lame original writing piece);

- They introduce themselves over the internet as people who speak German, Portuguese, English and French (when I know they don't speak any of those and barely speak their native language...).

What annoys me here its NOT that they make mistakes when writing, but how arrogant they are when they want to get across that they're somebody else, in order to acquire social status. I LOVE languages, however, I don't believe people are worse or better than others because they speak either one or seven different languages. Maybe that's got to do with the growing importance of speaking foreign languages in the business world. There's a certain glamour to people who are bilingual, trilingual, etc. They're seen as beings who come from a different planet. Well, truth is that they're no aliens, but rather, they're people who have studied a lot in order to get that kind of knowledge. So, instead of spending your time trying to look better than the others (when in fact you're only embarrassing yourself), why not try to study a bit?!?!

Sunday, 14 October 2012

One of the greatest things about teaching/learning a foreign language is running into loads of cultural stuff, like this material I'm working on for my postgrad course - this is the 'Power of Words' section, where we're analysing advertising language, persuasion skills, general writing skills, and more... Watch the video to see how nice words can change your day. Thank you, Improv Everywhere guys!

Sunday, 7 October 2012

Dear reader,

This is my first writing for this blog, which was
created a few weeks ago and, due to my lack of time, had to be kept here
waiting for a few lines which were soon to come.

I'd like to say that the sole
reason for the creation of this blog was a man's urge to write. A need to
express oneself, in a time when individual expression grows dull each day. In a
time when, despite the massification of knowledge, people's thoughts tend to
get lost in the vortex of a herd culture.

And to give my account of life,
since I’m mentioning the herd culture subject, well, I can say I've never
really felt as one of its members, and in fact, as I got older I realised I DID
NOT want to be part of it (which is contrary to the feelings most of us have
when we're teenagers, isn’t it?). Even so, I can’t say I AM NOT a part of it,
for I think it’s been getting harder and harder for people to check out of the big
society hotel and move to the cold, freezing streets of cultural expatriatism. And
so, the option chosen by us in most of the cases is to open our wallets, pay
for another night there and have a quiet night’s sleep in a warm and
comfortable bed.

Sometimes I feel I’ve been opening
my wallet too often though, or maybe I just haven't the the courage to face the
cold outside. And at those moments when I’m sitting on my bed at a late hour, feeling nothing but powerlessness, all I got left are my thoughts…

My thoughts! And they are the source
of my beliefs, my will to live and to change, my courage and my strength - not
mine only, but everyone’s! For each person’s ideas, hopes, even fears are part of
their unique identity. And that identity should never be lost, lest people
become mere scarecrows in a cucumber field; the unobtrusive elephant in the herd.

No, I’m not and I DO NOT want to be
the unnoticed elephant. And therefore I think… therefore I speak, I shout, I
write. And the latter has always been my first and best choice whenever I
wanted to express my thoughts. What about you? Do you also express your
thoughts? How do you do it?